Pro tip: my domino joiner setup bit me after 3 years of trusting it

I've been using the same plunge base and bit setup since I built a kitchen in Columbus back in 2018. Never had a problem, so I stopped checking the alignment. Last month I was fitting a pair of cabinet doors and the joints kept coming out 1/16 off. I blamed the wood, the humidity, even my clamp technique. After burning a full Saturday and almost re-cutting three panels, I finally ran a test joint on scrap and saw the bit was wobbling. The collet had worked loose over time, and the bit itself had a tiny burr I never noticed. Replaced the bit, torqued the collet properly, and now everything lines up perfect. What got me was that I always thought if it worked once, it would keep working. That assumption cost me about 6 hours. Has anyone else had a steady setup go sideways on them quietly? How do you catch it before it bites you on a real job?

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the_tessa16d ago

Torque check everything before every job, lesson learned hard.